Soon your trusty smartphone might soothe your back pain

Rather than popping pills and getting involved with acupuncture, you could soon be tapping your smartphone screen to take care of that niggling back pain.

Philips recently forged a partnership with Bavarian insurance giant Allianz to deliver a series of new innovative healthcare gadgets and the first device they’ve come up with is a funky smartphone-controlled pad, which offers remote control relief for the wearer’s back pain.

The pad comes with a belt attached and looks like a conventional back support, except it’s kitted out with some smart blue LEDs. The creators claim these LEDs will rid you of chronic back pain within two weeks by stimulating blood-flow to the affected area.

You operate the pad via a companion app for your smartphone or tablet, which will gather data to send back to Philips and Allianz. You’ll also have access to support from a real-life human being, who will call you to talk you through usage and any issues you might be having.

While we’re obviously not against innovative solutions to problems which affect millions of Britons every day, the effectiveness of so-called blue light therapy is still one which hasn’t been conclusively proved and, if we’re being honest, sounds a bit tenuous.

Also, the device is likely to be expensive, given the £275 price-tag of Philips’ existing ‘BlueTouch’ pain relief patch, which offers up many of the same supposed therapeutic benefits, without the quirky mobile phone remote control.

Pricing and availability for the device have yet to be revealed, but you can expect to see it hitting the UK later this year.

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